Storm of the Century Read Online Free PDF Page B

CROOKED TEETH--they look like teeth in a child’s drawing of a monster. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

    WEATHER LADY (voice-over)
    (continues)
    These are monster low-pressure areas. And are they really coming? Yes, I’m afraid they are.

    MARTHA’S intrigued interest is replaced by stark terror. She opens her mouth to scream and staggers backward, losing hold of the walker’s handles. She is going to fall.

    LINOGE raises his cane, the SNARLING WOLF’S HEAD JUTTING FORWARD. He grabs the walker, which is between him and the old woman, and throws it out the door behind him, where it lands on the porch, near the steps.

    8 INTERIOR: HALLWAY, WITH MARTHA.

    She falls heavily and SCREAMS, raising her hands, looking up at:

    9 INTERIOR: LINOGE, FROM MARTHA’S POINT OF VIEW.

    A SNARLING MONSTER, hardly human, with the cane upraised. Behind him, we see the porch and the white sky that signals the oncoming storm.

    10 INTERIOR: MARTHA, ON THE FLOOR.

MARTHA
    Please don’t hurt me!

    11 INTERIOR: MARTHA’S LIVING ROOM.

    Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    On the TV now is JUDD PARKIN, standing in front of a table. On it are: a flashlight, batteries, candles, matches, prepared foods, stacks of warm clothing, portable radio, a cellular phone, other supplies. Beside him is the WEATHER LADY, looking bewitched by these goods.

JUDD
    But a storm doesn’t need to be a disaster, Maura, and a disaster doesn’t have to be a tragedy. Given that philosophy to start with, I think we can give our New England viewers some tips which will help them prepare for what, from all indications, is apt to be a pretty extraordinary weather-maker.

WEATHER LADY
    What have you got there, Judd?

JUDD
    Well, to begin with, warm clothing. That’s number one. And you want to say to yourself, “How are my batteries? Have I got enough to keep a portable radio going? Possibly a small TV?” And if you’ve got a generator, the time to check your gasoline supplies--or your diesel or your propane--is before, not after. If you wait until it’s too late . . .

    During all this, THE CAMERA MOVES AWAY from the TV, as if losing interest. It is drawn back toward the hall. As we begin to lose the dialogue, we begin to hear far less pleasant SOUNDS: THE
    STEADY WHACK-WHACK-WHACK of LINOGE’S cane. At last it stops. There is SILENCE for a little bit, then FOOTSTEPS. Accompanying them is a CURIOUS DRAGGING SOUND, almost as if someone were pulling a chair or a stool slowly across a wood floor.

    JUDD (voice-over)
    (continues)
    . . . it’ll be too late.

    LINOGE comes into the doorway. His eyes aren’t ordinary--a distant and somehow unsettling blue--but they aren’t that HIDEOUS BLACK EMPTINESS that MARTHA saw, either. His cheeks, brow, and the bridge of his nose are covered with FINE STIPPLES OF BLOOD. He comes to EXTREME CLOSE-UP, eyes focused on something. A look of interest begins to warm his face up a little.
    Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

    WEATHER LADY (voice-over)
    Thanks, Judd. Words of wisdom our northern New England viewers have probably heard before, but when it comes to storms this size, some things bear repeating.

    12 INTERIOR: THE LIVING ROOM, FROM OVER LINOGE’S SHOULDER.

    It’s the TV he’s looking at.

WEATHER LADY
    Your local forecast is next, right after this.

    She is replaced by an ad for Punishments of God 2--all the volcanoes, fires, and earthquakes you could ever want for $19.95. Slowly, back to us again, LINOGE crosses the room to MARTHA’S chair. The DRAGGING SOUND recommences, and as he approaches the chair and his lower half comes into the frame, we see it’s the tip of his cane. It’s leaving a thin trail of blood along the rug. More blood is oozing through the fingers of the fist clamped over the wolf’s head. That’s mostly what he hit her with, the head of that wolf, and we probably